Various (Music) - ProgPower V 2004 - There And Back Again - A Heavy Metal Fairytale

Seeing the list of bands playing at this years' ProgPower USA festival was enough to get me mooh'ing with delight, so I decided to empty my savings account, buy the plane ticket and head to Atlanta for a few days to check out this one of a kind Metal festival in the USA. It became the weekend of the year and here follows a pretty exact account of my journey with a strong emphasis on the music (and the food of course...)

Part 1 - The pre-parties

Wednesday

I awoke very early Wednesday after crashing on my hotel bed at the Fairfield Inn the night before. A 14 hour travel, 6 hour time difference and a huge Metal lovers pizza from Pizza hut had me sleeping like a baby. I spent most of Wednesday afternoon checking out the surrounding area looking for the Crimson Records store in vain. Back at the hotel after 5 hours of walking around I discovered the store to be one block away from where I had turned back... (Insert weary cow sound here...)

The pre-pre-party for the crew and the early arrivers had been announced for Wednesday evening at 7 at The Vinyl club, so I of course I planned on spending my evening there. Heading down to the lobby of the Fairfield I thought I saw someone I recognized sitting in a chair. Turned out it was Teri from the PM board and owner of the fine Hard n Heavy who greeted me with the same kind of strange recognition, even though I had never seen her before. She headed with me to the party and made me feel right at home from the moment I met her, and being a regular attendee she introduced me to the people already at The Vinyl, who were all very welcoming and friendly.

The crew was already partying there and I was at once told by Wayne the guitar tech to let him know if anything at all bothered me at all. Very nice. Don Capps, Glen Harveston, Kimberley, Bear, Kelly, Nick Van Dyk and everyone else made this a very cool introduction night indeed. It was especially exciting to talk to Nick Van Dyk about the coming Redemption album, which sounded like it would completely blow me away. Still preparing for the Berlin Marathon, this was going to be a non-alcoholic festival for me, but for the only time during the festival I was tempted to taste the Long Island Ice Tea which came highly recommended and I know that this will be my preferred drink when I get back there next year. I left the bar along with Kimberley when they closed it down around an hour after midnight.

I was wondering what had happened to Ben from Metalreviews.com as we had planned to meet at the bar when he flew in. Back at the hotel he was not in the lobby either. Ahh, well, he was probably delayed and he had said that he would run in to the lobby and shout my name when he arrived, so I sat down in the next room with the internet PC and checked some news. Half an hour later I checked the lobby and sure enough, a person who greeted me as Yan from a band called Avian was sitting there chatting with an Asian looking guy. This turned out to be the infamous Ben Buzan from Metalreviews.com, or as I came to silently name him, "motormouth-dude-man"... The self-proclaimed "World's biggest Edguy fan" was a cool roommate and the human equivalence of a speaking Metal encyclopedia which couldn't be turned off. He just didn't stop talking for the entire weekend. It was great fun and there was always something happening when he was around. We got back to the room and talked all things metal long into the night before falling asleep.

Thursday

For some reason I awoke wide awake after about 4 hours of sleep. Must be the time difference... We went to get the unhealthy breakfast, which consisted of gooey muffins and donuts covered in thick sticky frosting, Yum yum... But after three days this got kinda trivial... I had checked the map and went for my second record store hunt. Ivan, the hurricane was coming and big black storm clouds were hovering on the horizon, so I thought I had better take the Marta (Name of the local train service) and stay out of the heavy rain. Meanwhile Ben went to the Airport to pick up Jonah, keyboard player from Pyramaze and Noah the bass player (not from Pyramaze), who were also staying at the room with us. When I got back from the record store I was soaked due to the heavy rain. Caught a quick shower and went down to the lobby to hang out and see if any bands would arrive. I finally got to me my fellow writer, Hashman who unfortunately stayed at another hotel, but we had a cool talk before we had to get ready for the pre-party. Just wish we had had more time. I had arranged an interview with my hero, Jon Oliva (Lead singer in Savatage) back home and was supposed to call his Manager/Security guy, Dave to set up the details, but apparently I got the wrong phone number because it didn't work. Dammit!!!

Suddenly it was time to head for the pre-party of the night. It was pouring down heavily outside by now and we got to the pre party a little delayed. I had just ordered a batch of Chicken fingers as the first band of the evening, Halycon Way took the stage and started on their first song. They sounded ok, but not quite enough to take my thoughts away from the food. Magistral were next. This was more up my alley, very interesting power metal, and a singer with great potential, though I thought he sounded too strained and out of tune for the first few songs I heard. After the first two songs I ran into Ben who told me that I had to come upstairs right now, as the first band members had started arriving. I didn't catch the last of Magistral, but I heard that the singer improved greatly.

Upstairs was the Earthlink venue where the real festival was set to take place. Two bars and a long hall which was slowly filling with people. The first famous person I said hi to was Timo Kotipelto (former Stratovarius singer), who afterwards was completely booked by people all night. I spent most of the night walking around talking to random people I bumped into and just soaking in the atmosphere. All the way at the back I found Jon Oliva, the Mountain King himself, sitting talking to some people. People were flocking around him, so instead I went up to the big bear-like man who was sitting next to him and asked if he by any chance knew Dave. Turned out that he was actually the Dave I was supposed to call about the interview. He was extremely nice and we set up the interview for noon the next day.

I spent the rest of the evening walking around meeting loads of new people, among others, the Wuthering Heights guys who had just arrived from Denmark and a somewhat pale Claus from Intromental Management. Turned out their plane trip had been less than fun, with 30 minutes of high turbulence before they hit the ground safely. It was also fun meeting John Zahner, the keyboard player from Savatage and two fans who were trying to get him to cough up his Streets bootlegs without any luck.
Downstairs I managed to catch a few Prototype songs. I thought the band sounded really excellent during some parts but then extremely boring in others. They were all over the place and I probably should listen to their albums before I make any conclusion. Enertia unfortunately didn't do much for me, I missed some better melodies in the music which seemed overly groove oriented to my taste.

It had been announced that we would get to hear the new Jon Oliva solo album, and finally back upstairs, a little past midnight it was put on the stereo. Unfortunately way too low to hear it properly. I still sat down in a comfy chair and tried to make out what was going on. So far I can say that is has a fantastic ballad and some really good guitar work. That was all I got. Halfway through the album they closed down the bar and everybody were told to leave. The last thing I remember was Jon and Dave stumbling down the parking cellar. Should be an interesting interview tomorrow.

Got back to the hotel, only to find Noah passed out on the floor of the lobby. There was a good reason for partying though as he had just been accepted as the new bassist for Avian. At one point he woke up and tried to get back on the couch, but that didn't go too well. Like a mother hen tending her flock Yan half carried Noah back to the room and I sat down and talked to Ben about the events of the day.

Friday

I woke up quite excited. Only 4 hours before interviewing one of my ultimate heroes and all-time favorite singers, Jon Oliva. Phew!
Noah didn't remember a thing when he woke up and it was pretty fun to see his expression change as I told him of the events the night before. Of course I added a little here and there just to get him really embarrassed...

I went to the venue around 12 and called big Dave just to be ahead of time. Turned out that we had to move the interview 3 hours, till after they had done their soundcheck. After a quick stop at the hotel I went back to the venue an hour later as you could never know what would happen in the music business. Even though it was still 3 hours before the doors opened there was already a line forming for the doors. As I was standing there watching the line for the doors get larger, Dave suddenly comes walking out of the venue and asks if I'm ready for the interview now! It turned out that their soundcheck had been pushed back again a few hours. Good thing I was there 2 hours early... We headed inside the venue and downstairs to the locker room caverns. Here I find Jon Oliva chilling out on a couch and after a quick hello the interview got under way.

Halfway through my questions the interview had to stop because the soundcheck had been pushed forward again as Chris Caffery had a date at 2. (Sorry if this is getting confusing) It was the plan to finish the interview after the soundcheck so I was able to hang around and watch while the band did their thing. Yeehaw! A very cool experience to say the least. Dave took me to the concert hall which was like a big theater with seats and room to stand in front of the stage. "Very cool venue" was my first thought. I sat back in my seat, kind of ecstatic, and watched the band fool around. I got a taste of what waited as the band(s) played "Jesus saves", "Tonight he grins again" and one of Jon's solo songs. Unfortunately the soundcheck went on for too long and I never got to ask Jon all the things I wanted, but nevertheless, I consider myself lucky just to get to talk to Jon Oliva at all. It was an experience I will remember and he was completely down to earth and very very nice and funny guy. Read the interview here.

After the interview and soundcheck I found myself outside the venue in the parking garage, still in a very ecstatic mood, so I went back inside, got my gold badge and started to check out the vendors who had set up small shops in the Vinyl club. I guess my mood had a little influence on my shopping gene as I went away from some very happy vendors with 25 new cd's, including the new Pain of Salvation. The music hadn't even started yet and already this was turning out to be the most awesome day in recent memory. I ran back to the hotel to dump of my cd's and got back to the venue just as Into Eternity went into their second song. Entering the concert hall I was hit by a wall of sound. Still getting into their new album, I found myself only recognizing one song, but being very impressed by the tightness of the band. The vocal harmonies worked fantastic and I stood in the middle of the crowd gaping at the band thinking "Why did I not discover this band earlier?" Even the songs I didn't know sounded awesome and I only missed the last song because I wanted to get some food before the bar got too crowded. There I met another couple of very nice guys (Doug and ?) and we had a cool chat while I ate the obligatory Chicken fingers.

I got back in the concert hall in time to catch Dreamscape, who delivered a good show, but especially the songs from Very reminded me a lot of Dream Theater's Images and words. Still, not bad at all, but not completely outstanding either. The band was obviously very happy to be there and they were throwing cd's out to the crowd through the show. I sat down in the seats for Tad Morose who, as the last times I have seen them live, put on an energized show. Sitting down was definitely not a good idea. I apparently still suffered from jet lag as after 5 minutes I almost fell asleep. Very weird as Tad morose played the most engaging set yet and gave me another push towards buying their cd's a.s.a.p.

Kamelot

For Kamelot I got down to the front rows and was ready to go crazy. The first thing I noticed was the chick standing on the side of the stage. Thomas Youngblood's wife by the way. She was pretty static the times she appeared on stage and I wish she had been used for more than just a gimmick. Thom was the single guitar player and handled that duty with great skill. I was standing right in front of him and it was fascinating to watch his moves. I noticed Kahn had some voice problems from time to time. It looked like he was trying his best, but several times his voice cracked and overall his vocals were just too low in the mix, so sometimes he couldn't be heard at all. Besides that I enjoyed the show and think the band pulled of a very good concert nonetheless. Not the best performance I have seen from them though.

The band opened, not surprisingly, with "Center of the universe" and continued with "Wings of despair", "Edge of paradise" and the potent "Nights of Arabia". "Elisabeth Part III - Fall from grace" was ultra heavy and "The Spell" was one of my favorites of the nights. After slowing down with "Wander" from Epica and a short keyboard solo, Kahn introduced "III ways to Epica" which was really cool to hear live. Thom's wife got on stage again and sung a few parts during this. Unfortunately she forgot to turn the microphone on, but one of the crew quickly took care of that.

It was Gunter, the keyboard player's birthday and this was celebrated with some pure alcohol. The band finished the concert in their nicest way with "Forever" where I of course sang very loudly along. As a nice surprise, Midnight and Ben Jackson of Crimson Glory came on stage to participate in "Call of the sea". Ben Jackson rocked, but Midnight was unfortunately relegated to backing vocals. I would have loved to hear if his incredible voice is still up to the old standard I remember. A Crimson Glory reunion on the horizon? I think so!
Kamelot finished with "Farewell" and "Karma" which was a satisfying end to a good show. I was pleased and completely psyched for what was to happen next.

Oh, I haven't mentioned the crowd yet. With me being completely sober I was still pretty much the only guy jumping up and down and singing along to the songs. I was stumped at how still the crowd was, even during the most hectic parts of songs. Some people just looked at me weirdly when I sang along, but having heard my own singing voice before I guess I cannot blame them...

Kamelot setlist:

Center of the universe
Wings of Despair
Edge of Paradise
Nights of Arabia
Fall From Grace
The Spell
Wander
3 Ways to Epica
Lost and Damned
Forever
Call of the Sea
Farewell
Karma

Jon Oliva's Pain & Weapons of mass destruction

After Kamelot I was getting extremely excited. One of the main reasons why I had taken this long journey was about to enter the stage. After having spoken to Jon in the afternoon and watched the soundcheck my expectations were only raised further. Of course I stayed in the front of the audience after the Kamelot set to get closer to the stage and the half hour wait wasn't so bad, with Jon joking around behind the thin curtain where the guys were setting up. People in the front rows were getting very excited, especially some guys from Costa Rica who had given John a home-made shirt the day before and he had told them he would wear it today for the show. Introducing the show, Jon said that we would need plastic surgery to get the smile of our faces. He was right. Even running the Berlin Marathon a week later couldn't take my smile away.

The show was split into two parts, first Jon Oliva's Pain with Christopher kinder (Drums), Matt LaPorte (Guitar), Kevin Rodney (Bass) and John Zahner (Keyboards) played songs from Jon's new solo album. The band opened with "The Dark", a very catchy song that reminds of Savatage with the multiple voices and a bombastic rythm. Next was a cool song that incorporated all the titles of Savatage albums into the song. Not sure if this was a one-off song or it is actually part of the solo album. "Guardian of forever" sounded really amazing with many changes and huge vocal parts. Jon proved that his voice is not broken in any way, still being able to sing both the soft and hard voices with huge emotion. "Walk alone" was a pretty hard hitting song and after this one Jon introduced the song "Father, Son and holy ghost" as one he had written after the September 11 attack, and this is one song I look forward to hearing on record. "Nowhere to run" was a simple catchy and rocking song that sounds like something from the earlier Savatage days. We got one more solo song with "All the time" and needless to say I cannot wait to hear the solo album now, this little concert just wetted my appetite. The band had great interaction on stage and obviously enjoyed themselves very much. Matt LaPorte on Guitar impressed me immensely.

I think it was a daring way to open the show, playing 7 songs that no people but as select few had heard before. For me it worked very well.

The lights now dimmed as everybody except Jon left the stage as he went into a piano medley that consisted of "Heal my soul", "When the crowds are gone" and "A little too far". At once most people were singing along and it was obvious that many long time Sava-fans were in the crowd. Exchanging glances with several people showed me that they were just as excited as me, yet nothing could have prepared me for what happened next. The lights dimmed again and through clouds of fog I saw the shadows of Chris Caffery, Doc Wacholz and Kevin Rodney getting on the stage. The next hour was pure magic. Chris Caffery was on fire this night and completely blew me away. He did honor to the memory of Criss Oliva by playing with a vigor and fierceness I have not witnessed many times before. Having watched many old video bootlegs with Criss Oliva it was chilling to see and hear someone whose style was so close.

The opening riff of "City beneath the surface" was all it took to make the audience go wild. We got an extremely powerful trilogy with "City beneath the surface", "The dungeons are calling" and "Sirens". Jon Oliva was walking around, edging the audience on and screaming like a madman. "Die die die" never sounded this good. It is very hard to describe the feeling of hearing these songs performed so well live. After this triple onslaught it was time to settle down as Jon started playing "Mentally yours" on the piano. Loving this first part of the song, I naturally sang along extremely loud and some people turned around looking at me weirdly. Luckily the Costa Rica guys were there to sing along with me so I was not all alone this time. Before the heavy part "Mentally yours" bridged into "New York City don't mean nothing" and the band played a fantastic version of this entire song. Really wonderful to hear this powerful song live again and the guitar work was again impressive. Caffery continued his winning streak as he nailed the riff on "Jesus saves" and I went into a jumping frenzy again. Power was exploding from stage at this point.

Now Jon introduced a song that Savatage had never played live before, a song from Fight for the Rock. I thought "Day after day" would make an interesting choice, but probably a bit too awkward, so the band went into a cool version of "Hyde". It was like being back in the 80's watching one of my old Savatage bootlegs. The song worked great live. I was pleasantly surprised when the band went into "Thorazine shuffle", which came of very heavy and Jon seemed happy with the response he got from the audience, in the psycho aaahaaahaaaahhaaaaaahhhhhh part. This song is great to jump to live, believe me. Jon did miss the last part unfortunately, but that was just fun to see too. He also took the time to thank the organizer, Glenn and made some fun with the Jack Daniels bottle that was brought on stage.

Next up was another big Streets medley. "Tonight he grins again" is always a huge experience and the audience went absolutely nuts when we got the full versions of "Somewhere in time" and "Believe". Chilling was a fitting word for this part. Raising my hands to the sky all I could do was stand there and let the music embrace me with all its splendor.

Next it was time for a Caffery solo spot and as a cool twist he got to sing the vocals for "Edge of thorns". Turns out he has a very fine voice and I thought it worked very well here. That Caffery played "Temptation revelation" was what I would call a huge undertaking. But he proved that he was the one to do it and with me absolutely loving the playing of Criss Oliva, I guess the biggest compliment I can give was that he did it justice. Just chilling. "Gutter ballet" ended the first part of the Sava-show and I think everybody were in a state of bliss at this point.

After this the band went off stage while the audience screamed for them to return. And return they did, with a loving version of "Power of the night", surprisingly, even to himself it seemed, Chris Caffery took over the vocals for this one as well. Fists were in the air and I was once again taken back in time. Caffery got time to do a quick solo before "The Hall of the Mountain king" made me and the Costa Rica guys spend the last of our energy on what was the concert of the year so far for me.

A night to remember for sure. Words are not adequate to describe this evening. You had to be there. Magic had come and gone with Jon Oliva and his arsenal of weapons. Luckily it would return the next day...

Ok, so of course I have to mention the one thing I missed was hearing "If I go away", my favorite of the Streets album, but one should not complain when the guys put on such a godly show.

Setlists:

Jon Oliva's Pain

The Dark
People Say
Guardian of forever
Walk Alone
Father, Son, Holy Ghost
Nowhere To Run
All the Time

Weapons of Mass destruction

Heal My Soul
When the Crowds Are Gone
A Little Too Far
City beneath the surface
Dungeons Are Calling
Sirens
Mentally Yours (Intro)
New York City don't mean nothing
Jesus Saves
Hyde
Thorazine Shuffle
Tonight He Grins Again
Somewhere In Time
Believe
Edge of Thorns
Temptation revelation
Gutter Ballet
Power of the Night
Hall of the Mountain King

Saturday

Adagio

First band of the day was Adagio with their new singer, Gus Monsanto, who I thought did an impressive job. His voice easily matched David Readman and felt like it had a ton of power. Technically Adagio were very impressive to watch and hear. Franck Hermany handled his six string bass with great skill and Stéphan Forté on guitar was equally impressive and the band created an absolutely huge sound. The new singer tried his best to get the audience going, but was hampered by some microphone problems. The long and epic "The seven lands of sin" was a highlight. Why I have not purchased their new album, Underworld yet, I do not know... A very very impressive concert.

Wuthering Heights

It is a funny thing that I had to travel all the way to USA to finally see Wuthering Heights in action. Turned out that it was worth it as the band played an impressive concert with a very good setlist. The band made the right choice in scaling things down a little for the live show, making the sound somewhat rawer than on record. The first thing I noticed was the bass player who definitely seemed to have changed somewhat from the picture on the cover. Turned out that some of the Wuthering Heights guys for some reason couldn't make it to the show, so Teddy Möller from Lock Vostok stood in on bass, while Andreas from Platitude stood in on keyboards.

The opener "The Nevershining Stones" was catchy and definitely got me headbanging. Unfortunately the rest of the crowd was nailed to the floor, watching the band as if to say "ha, impress us please". So they did, continuing with "Tree" from the new album and it became obvious that singer Nils Patrik's huge voice holds up just as well live as on record. I noticed some people in the audience blinking as Nils took of his a white shirt, but that was the only time I noticed some life in the immobile crowd. The major highlight for me was part I and II of the amazing "Longing for the woods" trilogy. The band pulled of the many changes seemingly with ease and delivered a very satisfying and powerful punch. Especially Nils and Erik looked like they had fun on stage, even dancing a polka to the folkier part of some songs. Standing out from the other bands in their stage presence the band must have come of like the ugly duckling to some people.

After "Lost realms" we got the electrifying "Bad hobbits die hard" which was a surprisingly good choice for a live setting. Being an instrumental, the band was able to keep up the pace and the audience attention by their enthusiastic stage show. After a short band introduction they went into "Hunter in the dark" and finished the way too short show with the mighty "Highland winds". The second guitarist who I did not recognize was a little quiet and held back comparing to Erik who was smiling and doing small tricks through the whole show. Overall a great performance by the band. Third best concert of the festival.

Set list:

The Nevershining Stones
Tree
Longing For The Woods - Part I
Longing For The Woods - Part II
Lost Realms
Bad Hobbits Die Hard
Hunter In The Dark
Highland Winds

Brainstorm

I watched Brainstorm from the seats to regain some strength for the last two bands. They made me wish I knew some more of their songs as they put on one of the most entertaining shows of the festival. The lead singer has a great charisma and runs around the stage interacting with the audience constantly, even jumping of the stage in the middle of a song to high five the people in the first rows of the audience, all the while singing. The band was obviously very happy to be there and for the audience response as well. My favorite Brainstorm album is still Ambiguity and "Crush depth" was delivered with well, crushing power and Andy's final scream was very impressive. The band closed a blazing set with "Into the fire". Even though I sat in the chairs, I never fell asleep... A major indication of an excellent show.

All hail the organisor, Glenn Harveston

Pain of Salvation

After the slightly disappointing show at the 2000 Decibel festival I hoped that Pain of Salvation would be able to re-capture some of the magic of when I saw them live for the first time at TEX. A couple of months before the show there had been a vote for the setlist on the internet, which I of course had participated in and amazingly I got to hear almost every song I had dreamed of. I was expecting something huge, but because of the show at 2000 Decibel I had this nagging sense of doubt. Man, those doubts were put to shame. The band pulled of a completely amazing and magical show and went beyond anything I had imagined. The band was in great shape and especially Daniel and Johan were quite a sight to watch. An energized and very charismatic Daniel was all over the place, doing all kinds of psychotic moves and joking with the audience through the show.

First surprise was when they opened with "Undertow". Not the most obvious opener but I thought it served great as an introduction to a riveting set. Daniel later explained that the band had put all the winning songs from the vote into a hat and thus decided the setlist and said that we would get to hear some songs they had not played for a long time. I was in the front part of the audience along with several hard core fans, so this time I was not the only one singing along.

The first huge highlight came as the band started on the impressive "Rope Ends". The band pulled of a very powerful and tight version of this difficult song. Ok, so Daniel forgot to sing almost the entire last verse as he had obviously forgotten the words. Sending the audience a questioning gaze I of course proceeded to scream the lyrics back in his face. He looked kind of frightened, but got back in the song during the bridge section. The rest of the band took it with a smile. It was not the only mistake of the evening, but these things didn't bother me as the band obviously had fun on stage and there was a really special chemistry present this night. It just added to the spontaneous feeling and showed that the band members themselves are only human beings. But I would say super humans, capable of making magic with a few musical instruments and a voice that holds every emotion in a tight leash. Only Fredrik on the keyboard looked strangely absent. He didn't have a hint of emotion of his face the times I looked at him. Oh well, he still played perfectly.

Daniel was in a good mood, joking with the audience between the songs, thanking the people who had partied at the hotel last night and kept them from getting any sleep with a smile. The band obviously don't need any sleep... The audience roared and went absolutely nuts when the band went into an energized version of "Used". Frantic is one word to describe the cool version we got of this song.

Another one of my dream songs came with "In the flesh" from The Perfect Element. Daniel again sang with a ton of passion and by this time I couldn't believe how the show could rise any further on the divinity scale. Amazingly it did as the band played a dreamy and beautiful version of Ashes. After this it blew right of the scale when the band went into one of my absolute favorites of Remedy Lane, "A trace of blood". This was another song I have always dreamed of hearing live and I wasn't disappointed. Daniel sung with incredible passion and people in the front were very much into this song. All I can say is that it was "beyond the fantastic" to hear this song and the band played an impressive version, breaks and everything intact.

The energy reached a fever pitch as they played "Inside" and Daniel put on some acrobatic moves running and jumping all over the stage. My favorites just kept hitting me as the band played "!". This song is incredibly powerful live and the band proved how tight they can be. The funky part of the show came with "People passing by". As opposed to the Decibel festival the band members made this song great to watch. Daniel played many solos during the show and I was really impressed with his performance.

"Idioglossia" was just amazing to hear too and nearing the end the band finished the set with "Beyond the pale" and I could just not be any more satisfied. Pain of Salvation played a concert that was equally entertaining and technically impressive with a constant sense of magic in the air. This concert alone was worth the entire trip.

Setlist:

Undertow
Rope Ends
Used
In the Flesh
Ashes
A Trace of Blood
Inside
!
People Passing By
Idioglossia
Beyond the Pale

My first impression of Be is very positive by the way.

Edguy

After the Pain of Salvation magic I was still high when Edguy came on stage to close the party. Party attitude they certainly had, a bit too much for some of the audience who were turned off by Tobias' slightly freaked out humor. I thought they were funny, yes, even the dick jokes. A couple of times the band did seem a bit lost though. Opening with "Under the moon" and "Navigator", the first part of the setlist was similar to the show I saw earlier in the year in Sweden, but after a few songs things luckily started to change. After the slightly boring "Land of the miracle", "Chalice of Agony" was brought forth in the set and set of a huge explosion in the audience.

The band did fool around a bit too much and spent too much time on audience sing alongs during the first part of the show, something I have come to dread severely is the audience sing along which in 99% of the cases is boring and the same as every other one. This one was no different... Having watched Felix' drum solo before I was not very excited by this one either as it had not changed much. Tobias was very energetic through-out the night doing all sorts of tricks with the mike stand and making split jumps of the drum kit on several occasions. "Lavatory Love machine" was next and I was starting to get back into the mood.

"Vain glory opera" was a good excuse for some jumping around and so thought several others. Finally the crowd had started moving a little. After "King of fools" the band went off stage for little while, only to come back and introduce the first special guest of the night. Everybody were expecting Timo Kotipelto, but instead Rob Rock came on stage and performed an explosive "Avantasia", which was very cool indeed. After some jokes, which Rob unfortunately never got the chance to counter, Timo Kotipelto was invited on stage to sing "Wake up the king" along with Tobias. It worked pretty good and was a fun thing to watch. The band finished the night with "Out of control" where everybody went absolutely crazy.

Under the moon
Navigator
Land of the miracle
Chalice of Agony
Key to my Fate
Lavatory Love MAchine
Vain glory Opera
Piper never dies
King of fools
Avantasia (With Rob Rock)
Wake up the king (With Timo Kotipelto)
Out of control

The after party

After the concert I was hanging around at the bar area and the funniest thing happened. I met these two huge RevelationZ fans from Miami, who told me how much they loved the site. Asking me for a picture I was only happy to oblige and was pretty honored when they asked me to sign their Edguy flag next to the band members' autographs. For a few moments I felt like a rock star, but looking to my right and seeing Chris Caffery walk by, I quickly got back down to earth.

Afterwards I got back to the hotel and met Ben and the other guys and we went down to the Patio to check out the party down there, where the guys from Brainstorm and into Eternity were hanging around. Around 4 in the night I crashed in my room, worn out with cool experiences and after saying goodbye to everybody when they left for the airport at 5, I promptly fell asleep again and didn't wake up before I had to leave for the airport. The long flight home went pretty quickly as I was taking notes from the events of the past four days. It was four days of Heavy Metal, cool people and fun at the best organized festival I have ever had the pleasure to experience. All the good rumors about ProgPower USA are true. This is where you should be!

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